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The Orthodox ideal of unity may become the basis of Russia's political system

9. June 2008 - 12:22

The Moscow Patriarchate believes that ideals of people's unity pursued by the Orthodox Church for years are still important for the country. "The society created on this basis is more efficient than any social environment or state riven by conflicts and controversy, and increasingly turning from manageable into unmanageable state," Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, said at XII St. Petersburg International Economy Forum.

According to the priest, the Orthodox social ideal of "the collegiate national body" may not only become the basis of the Russian political and social system, but also Russia's message, "which may help the world to overcome the ideology crisis, and eventually, the socio-economic crisis."

The idea of integrated power and people, and the union of people with the Orthodox Church and "other traditional religious communities" has been forming in Russia for ages, and it is directly rooted in the New Testament, the priest said.

"The political system currently dominating the world boasts its multi-confessional and multi-party nature, separation of powers, competition and manageable conflicts, but Orthodox Christians view it only as the sinful disintegration of people and mankind and symptoms of spiritual corruption," Fr. Vsevolod said.

He believes that such concept of harmful disintegration is just "one element of the Orthodox concept of the society in general."

This concept also includes "the priority of spiritual aspects over material ones, and the idea of self-giving for the good of neighbor, the call to self-restriction and abstinence, and the teaching of faith, Homeland, and sacred things as the most significant values of the society," Fr. Vsevolod said.